Summary

The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) will conduct a 24-month comprehensive assessment and economic analysis of their renewable energy resources (including wind, biomass, solar, and wave energy), along with a comprehensive assessment of tribal energy requirements, and the feasibility of forming a tribal utility. The tribe will work with local utilities and the Bonneville Power Administration to identify transmission and interconnection issues and assess the feasibility of exporting power. The QIN will also complete an environmental assessment, including comprehensive bird, wildlife, and geological studies.

Project Description

The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) will conduct a 24-month comprehensive assessment and economic analysis of their renewable energy resources, including wind, biomass, solar, and wave energy, along with a comprehensive assessment of tribal energy requirements, and the feasibility of forming a tribal utility. The tribe will work with local utilities and the Bonneville Power Administration to identify transmission and inter-connection issues and assess the feasibility of exporting power. The QIN will also complete an environmental assessment, including comprehensive bird, wildlife, and geological studies.

Objective

The objective of the comprehensive feasibility study is the determination that renewable energy development on their tribal lands is not only possible, but also sustainable and is in compliance with the QIN Strategic Planning criteria.

The advancement of health, safety, welfare, education, and economic development are the tribe's major concerns and the focus of the tribe's strategic plan. The QIN is always focused on opportunities that promote enhancing the quality of life for our tribal community. The tribe's long-term goal is to achieve energy self-sufficiency through the planning, development, and implementation of a Quinault Indian Nation Utility Company, whose power source is renewable energy.

Scope

The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) will conduct a comprehensive feasibility study that results in the determination that renewable energy development on our tribal lands is not only possible, but also sustainable and is in compliance with our QIN Strategic Planning criteria. The feasibility study will include comprehensive assessments of site-specific renewable energy resources. This will include sustainable wind, biomass, solar, and wave energy studies.

The QIN renewable energy feasibility study will also include a comprehensive assessment of our tribal energy requirements. This assessment will also include studies to determine the feasibility of exporting electrical energy. The QIN will be working with our local utility company (Grays Harbor Public Utility District) to identify transmission and interconnection issues. The QIN has already met with the commissioners of Grays Harbor Public Utility District and has received a commitment of technical support throughout the duration of our feasibility study. This will greatly assist the QIN during the technology analysis portion of our renewable energy feasibility study. The feasibility study will also include a comprehensive economic analysis to determine financial requirements for this project as it evolves from a plan to an actual implementation.

An environmental assessment to determine benefits and impacts will also be included in our feasibility study. A major concern of the QIN is to ensure this project does not adversely affect the environment. Therefore the study will include a comprehensive bird, wildlife, ecological, and geological studies as part of our renewable energy project plan.
The QIN will also be conducting benefit assessments to determine the potential for employment opportunities as well as cultural and social advancement resulting from the renewable energy project.

As the feasibility study progresses and realistic renewable energy options are identified, we will begin preliminary system designs based on specific energy resources. This will coincide with associated training and required tribal professional development planning.
The tribe will also determine long-term operating and maintenance planning to ensure the sustainability of the renewable energy project. at the conclusion of the renewable energy feasibility study a business plan will be created for the development and implementation of a sustainable energy project. The business plan will include resource, hardware, personnel, and financial requirements based on the results of the feasibility study.

Background

The Quinault Indian Nation's main objective will focus on conducting a comprehensive alternative energy feasibility study that demonstrates the potential sustainability of renewable energy development on our tribal land. The QIN has recently completed a preliminary Biomass feasibility study. The results of this preliminary work are promising. QIN is now ready to proceed towards a more detailed Biomass study to examine the feasibility of a biomass combined heat and power project located at our tribal administration complex in Taholah, Washington. The tribe also recently erected two anemometer towers on our tribal land. The objectives of these towers are to conduct wind studies to determine wind sustainability at potential future wind turbine sites.

Project Location

The Quinault Indian Reservation (QIR) contains 208,105 acres of land in a single, triangular block located in the southwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington and includes the villages of Taholah, Queets, and Amanda Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean and 28 miles of preserved shoreline, among the few undeveloped shorelines remaining in the United States.

Project Status

This project is complete. For details, see the final report (PDF 3.0 MB). The project was competitively selected under the Tribal Energy Program's FY2003 solicitation, "Renewable Energy Development on Tribal Lands," and started April 2004. For more information, see the October 2005 (PDF 433 KB) and October 2006 (PDF 1.3 MB) project status reports. Download Adobe Reader.